A retired Indian spy says he warned Canadian officials of a specific threat to Air India's weekly Toronto-Bombay flight less than three weeks before the 1985 bombing.

NEW DELHI–A retired Indian spy says he warned Canadian officials of a specific threat to Air India's weekly Toronto-Bombay flight less than three weeks before the 1985 bombing.

Maloy Krishna Dhar, who worked in India's Intelligence Bureau, says he passed the information to External Affairs' head of diplomatic protective security, Doug French, during a meeting in Ottawa in early June of that year.

"I'd heard that Sikh militants in Vancouver had been preparing and exploding test bombs," Dhar said. "I got information from my sources that the flight from Toronto and Montreal was their intended target though I had no idea of exactly when they would strike."

Dhar, who ran a clandestine network of informers while serving as a diplomat in Canada from 1983 to 1987, says he warned French that Canadian authorities should pay special attention to Talwinder Singh Parmar, the head of the militant sect Babbar Khalsa, and his associate Inderjit Singh Reyat. His contacts had linked them to the suspected plot.

"French said he would relay my concerns to the proper authorities," Dhar said. "I don't know whether he did, but I presume that's what happened."

A few days later, Dhar says, he also tipped off one of his official RCMP contacts. He can no longer recall the officer's name.

"He told me `Don't worry, I'll take care of it,'" Dhar recalled.

"Still, I never got the sense that the RCMP appreciated the urgency or importance of what they were dealing with."

Reached by phone at his Ottawa home yesterday, French said he doesn't remember receiving any information from Dhar about threats to Air India flights. Even if he had, French says he's not sure he would have passed it along to his RCMP contact, Sgt. Dick Muir.

"It was a civil aviation matter, not a diplomatic matter," he said. "If it wasn't a threat to an embassy, I'd be hesitant to make a scene about it."

At the time of the bombing, French says he was already under a cloud in his job because of allegations he failed to relay information that might have helped thwart a March 1985 attack on the Turkish embassy in which a security guard was killed and the ambassador was severely injured. French says he was subsequently assigned to administrative duties, but appealed the department's decision and was posted to Sri Lanka for two years before retiring.

Dhar's June warnings coincided with a letter to the RCMP from Air India saying its planes could come under attack, information that was never passed to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

His statements are the latest in a growing list of allegations that the federal government and the RCMP had detailed information about the terrorist plot before June 23, 1985, when the Air India plane exploded off the Irish coast, killing all 329 passengers and crew.

The developments at the Air India inquiry in Ottawa are being followed closely by Dhar and an Indian diplomat who warned authorities of the impending attack – Kalarickal Pranchu Fabian, then-acting high commissioner to Canada.

"I felt very hurt," recalled Fabian, "that Canadian authorities didn't do more to try and avert the tragedy."

Reyat was the only person ever convicted for actions related to the attack. He was found guilty in 1990 of manslaughter in the deaths of two baggage handlers in Tokyo. All other charges against him, including the murders of the people aboard Air India Flight 182, were stayed.

Parmar was killed by police in India in 1992.

In the months before the attack, Dhar said, he met regularly with his Canadian counterparts to share information about the activities of Sikh militants in Canada, including possible threats to Air India flights.

In April 1985, Dhar said, he relayed word from one of his contacts that Babbar Khalsa and the International Sikh Youth Federation were planning a "spectacular show," although India's national airline was not specifically mentioned.

Dhar refused to divulge the sources of information that turned out to be chillingly accurate. He admitted, however, that he used both clandestine methods and informants to infiltrate militant Sikh groups during his stint as a diplomat in Canada.

Fabian said India's tactics were necessary given the dire threat to Indian interests and the inadequate response by Canadian authorities.

"It was apparent to me that parts of the Canada government weren't taking the threat seriously enough," Fabian said.

As India's senior envoy in Ottawa at the time, Fabian says he met at least 10 times with Tony Vincent, then-director of External Affairs' South and Southeast Asia desk, in the months preceding the disaster.

He says he was also invited to attend at least one meeting where RCMP and CSIS officials were present.

On each occasion, Fabian says security threats from Sikh militants, especially the fear they might target Air India flights, were the main focus.

"Tony was too much of a diplomat to put it bluntly, but I got the impression that, while he was passing things on, the Canadian police and intelligence agencies thought we were crying wolf," Fabian said. "There was never any feedback about what we told them."

Vincent went on to serve as Canada's envoy to Peru and Spain. He died in 1999.

While Dhar detailed his April warning to Canadian officials in his book, Open Secrets, India's Intelligence Unveiled, Fabian has never spoken out. Neither man has been asked to testify at the inquiry into the 1985 attack.

"At the time, I encouraged the victims' families to press for a judicial inquiry because I thought that was the only way the truth would come out," said Fabian. "I'm glad that's finally happening."

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